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McKinley Follows Heart To South Bend

McKinley Follows Heart To South Bend

Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Sanford has landed his guy. 2016 four-star California receiver Javon McKinley is finally Irish and it has been a long time coming.

The 6-foot-2, 200-pounder has always had Notre Dame close to the top of his leaderboard if not the leader for months. McKinley and his family visited South Bend for the first time in April and left with impressed on a short visit.

When Irish Invasion rolled around in June, some insiders thought McKinley might pull the trigger on his multi-day visit to Notre Dame, but the Centennial star left uncommitted.

Throughout the process, Sanford kept McKinley and his family in the loop of happenings within the program and the recruiting plan for the Irish. In October, McKinley returned with his family on his official visit for the USC game, but the receiver left South Bend once again uncommitted.

Sanford didn’t give up and kept on the trail of the U.S. Army All-American. Head coach Brian Kelly and Sanford made a quick stop for an in-home visit after the regular season concluded.

Notre Dame left the McKinley residence without a commitment, but the visit was crucial as McKinley would host Oregon and Washington over the next few days.

The Irish are getting a possession receiver with game-breaking ability. McKinley doesn’t possess Will Fuller or Chris Brown type speed, but he has deceptive speed very similar to Notre Dame great Michael Floyd. McKinley and Floyd aren’t going to shatter 40-yard dash times, but they aren’t going to get caught from behind.

McKinley also has a phenomenal set of hands. He knows how to high point the football, but also make the tough catch in traffic. He plays with a smoothness at the high school level. He will need to work on getting off the line of scrimmage and his routes need to be fine tuned once he arrives in South Bend.

As far as his high school career, McKinley will leave with his name in the record books. Over the course of three years on varsity, McKinley reeled in 177 receptions for 3,724 yards and 42 touchdowns, which included a junior year of 97 catches, 2062 yards and 25 scores.

Notre Dame won the battle over offers from Miami, Ohio State, Oregon, Tennessee, UCLA, USC, Washington, Florida, Stanford and Arizona to name a few.